From the 1st to the 4th of May a successful drive was conducted by many columns in the often harried but never deserted Lindley to Kroonstad district.  The result was propitious, as no fewer than 321 prisoners were brought in.  Of these, 150 under Mentz were captured in one body as they attempted to break through the encircling cordon.

Amid many small drives and many skirmishes, one stands out for its severity.  It is remarkable as being the last action of any importance in the campaign.  This was the fight at Moolman’s Spruit, near Ficksburg, upon April 20th, 1902.  A force of about one hundred Yeomanry and forty Mounted Infantry (South Staffords) was despatched by night to attack an isolated farm in which a small body of Boers was supposed to be sleeping.  Colonel Perceval was in command.  The farm was reached after a difficult march, but the enemy were found to have been forewarned, and to be in much greater strength than was anticipated.  A furious fire was opened on the advancing troops, who were clearly visible in the light of a full moon.  Sir Thomas Fowler was killed and several men of the Yeomanry were hit.  The British charged up to the very walls, but were unable to effect an entrance, as the place was barricaded and loopholed.  Captain Blackwood, of the Staffords, was killed in the attack.  Finding that the place was impregnable, and that the enemy outnumbered him, Colonel Perceval gave the order to retire, a movement which was only successfully carried out because the greater part of the Boer horses had been shot.  By morning the small British force had extricated itself, from its perilous position with a total loss of six killed, nineteen wounded, and six missing.  The whole affair was undoubtedly a cleverly planned Boer ambush, and the small force was most fortunate in escaping destruction.

One other isolated incident may be mentioned here, though it occurred far away in the Vryheid district of the Transvaal.  This was the unfortunate encounter between Zulus and Boers by which the latter lost over fifty of their numbers under deplorable circumstances.  This portion of the Transvaal has only recently been annexed, and is inhabited by warlike Zulus, who are very different from the debased Kaffirs of the rest of the country.  These men had a blood-feud against the Boers, which was embittered by the fact that they had lost heavily through Boer depredations.  Knowing that a party of fifty-nine men were sleeping in a farmhouse, the Zulus crept on to it and slaughtered every man of the inmates.  Such an incident is much to be regretted, and yet, looking back upon the long course of the war, and remembering the turbulent tribes who surrounded the combatants—­Swazis, Basutos, and Zulus—­we may well congratulate ourselves that we have been able to restrain those black warriors, and to escape the brutalities and the bitter memories of a barbarian invasion.

CHAPTER 38.